Reims in tune Marseille

Reims secured their second shock away win of the season as they stunned Marseille 3-2 at the Stade Velodrome.

Reims secured their second shock away win of the season as they stunned Marseille 3-2 at the Stade Velodrome. Having already seen off Lyon, Hubert Fournier's men silenced the home crowd with a late Prince Oniangue header after Marseille's Florian Thauvin and Andre-Pierre Gignac had cancelled out a first-half strike from Mads Albaek and a Saber Khelifa own goal. An unlikely three points for Reims meant a fourth defeat of the season for Elie Baup's Marseille, who have drifted outside of the European places in Ligue 1. The hosts wanted to put their midweek Champions League defeat to Napoli behind them and Mathieu Valbuena threatened an early opener, but the diminutive Frenchman missed the target after dribbling his way into the area. Marseille continued to press and Thauvin twice went close just after the 20-minute mark, firstly drawing a save from Kossi Agassa with a looping shot from a tight angle before blazing over the bar moments later. Despite their early dominance though, Baup's men found themselves behind shortly after the half-hour point when Khelifa put through his own net. Floyd Ayite took charge of a 25-yard free-kick and his effort hit the wall before deflecting off the Tunisian's head to wrong-foot Steve Mandanda. Reims' fortune in front of goal continued and, not content with just a goal lead, Fournier's team doubled their lead just a minute later. An Ayite corner fell at the feet of Albaek 12 yards out and his first-time effort took a wicked deflection off Nicolas N'Koulou to deceive the unfortunate Mandanda. The visitors almost grabbed a third goal on the stroke of half-time but Gaetan Courtet's header from an Aissa Mandi cross went narrowly wide. Baup sent an unchanged side out for the second half and that move paid off within 10 minutes when Thauvin pulled one back for the hosts. After being picked out on the right by Andre Ayew, the winger cut inside before unleashing a clinical shot across Agassa and into the far bottom corner. Thauvin continued to impress and, after Dimitri Payet played a superb ball to find him, the former Lille man controlled on the turn before seeing his half-volley finish just the wrong side of the top corner after taking a deflection off Anthony Weber. Reims should have reclaimed their two-goal lead when an unmarked Albaek fired into the side-netting when faced only by Mandanda, and that wasted effort looked like proving costly as Marseille grabbed an equaliser with five minutes left to play. Substitute Andre-Pierre Gignac pounced on a poor clearance and fired a 20-yard half-volley beyond Agassa with the aid of a big deflection off Mickael Tacalfred. However, seemingly undeterred by that blow, Reims continued to press and their persistence paid off deep into injury time. Grzegorz Krychowiak was allowed time to pick out his man and Oniangue was on hand to nod the ball beyond Mandanda and claim all three points for the visitors.